Armored Core Fan Fiction: Roses Of Demise
by EmptySuicideNote
Summary: The Story of 8 AC Pilots of an infamous unit known as the Roses Of Demise. (R.O.D) The chapters take perspectives of each and everyone of them. Showing their personality, struggles and the things they do on their off time.


Roses Of Demise. Part 1. An Armored Core Nexus/ Armored Core Last Raven Fan Fiction.

It's 9 o' clock in the morning, two teenagers are hanging by the rooftop of Ridgewood International School, enjoying their breakfast.  
"What's the word on the job, Jack?" the black haired teen asks, while looking up to the sky and sucking on a cola flavored lollipop.  
"It's something simple, terrorist organizations using MTs(Muscle Tracer) units as a show of force. We're hired to attack them, roughly they say that these guys have about 70 MTs. A dozen CR 91L2 unit with plasma cannons, 30 CR98G quad with grenades and napalm, 8 CR 07LM bipedals with large missiles. The rest of them are CR 77M units. Should be easy right Gerald?" the other blonde haired teen asks with a smirk.  
"Should be. Mission details sent to our smartphones?"  
"All sent. We'll be deploying after school, a surprise attack on their hideout." Gerald walks away and gives Jack a sign, confirming that he received the intel.

Gerald takes out the lollipop stick form his mouth, throwing it into the trash can while passing his schoolmates. Chinese students make up 60% of the students in Ridgewood, while Malays and Indians make up 5% of it, leaving the other 35% to be filled in with foreigners. Gerald scratches his head as he calmly walks through the hallways, seeing some male students glaring at him, a few female students staring at him, not that Gerald even cares, he just goes to his locker with the blank look on his face. Gerald then walks into class, he sits at the back of class with a teenager with gray hair wearing nerdy glasses.  
"Hey, Gerald. Where have ya been?"  
"The roof. Where were you, Hamilton?"  
"Was here, the whole time. I got the message from Jack." Hamilton says as he yawns. A moment later, the teacher walks in.

"Stand!" the class stands to face the teacher.  
"Good Morning, teacher." the class chanted and sat down.

"Alright class, Miss Linda is absent today, so you are all free to do your own revision but please keep the volume down." the teacher says to them. Gerald and Hamilton turn to each other and proceed to do their own activities.

Gerald takes his textbooks and starts doing his own revision, while Hamilton goes to sit with the girls.  
"Hey Lee." Hamilton says as he pulls a chair to them.  
"Hi. Where were you?" the Chinese girl asks with a raised eyebrow. Hamilton yawns again and looks at her with his sleepy eyes.  
"At my place, sleeping like a baby." Hamilton says with a broad smile  
"Okayy. Eh, so this weekend do you have any plans?" another girl asks.  
"I'm not sure yet. Why?"  
"Oh, we're going out to the Curve. Can you please bring Gerald?" the girl asks Hamilton with a pleading voice.  
"I don't know, I'll try." Hamilton responds with a teasing look at the girl.  
"You've got a crush on him like the other girls right?" Hamilton teases her.  
"Noo" the girl tries to deny it but Hamilton could see her blushing.

"I bet you do. Hahah it's cause he's hot right?"  
"No, you're hot too." the girl says to Hamilton as she blushes.  
"Hahaha, you're still blushing hahaha" Hamilton laughs, makes the girls smile while Lee's friend just sits there quietly as she blushes.

Gerald gets up, walks over to the teacher.  
"Teacher, may I got to the toilet?" the teacher nods and Gerald walks out, finding 5 other students walking towards him.  
"Gerald." one of them bumps into him, putting something to his chest.  
"That's the plan details of execution Black Jack has given us. Your file and Rabbit's file is in there. See you later." the guys walk away. Gerald goes back to class, with a memory stick reader to his smart phone, he inserts the memory stick to the adapter, and downloads the files within to his phone.

Hamilton walks to him.  
"Here. Download this. Atlas gave me this." Gerald mouths to him, Hamilton nods and takes the memory stick reader, download the files and break the memory stick. Throwing it into the trash can.  
"So what now?" Hamilton asks. Gerald shrugs and looks to the ceiling.

Time passes and it's already the lunch break. 1:30 P.M, Gerald and Hamilton walk up the flight of stairs to the roof, seeing Jack and the 5 guys that he had previously seen.  
"Yo, Leon!" Hamilton calls out as they both greet each other.  
"Walter, Theron." Gerald greets the two guys with glasses coldly.  
"Colt, Caden."

"Everyone here?" Jack asks as he drinks his coke through the straw. They look at each other and nod.  
"Okay. The job we'll be doing this later, is an attack on the MT force of the terrorist organization, League of New Reason. Kinda stupid of them to have their MT force out so bluntly, but expect them to have an AC or two working with them. But whatever, not our job to give a damn right. Of course, I got this through the Ark and the client is the Malaysian Government, the MT force is too big for their units and they can't assemble their units in time. It's just us Roses, we're also being paid with Credits not by Ringgit. The pay is done by commission, we'll be paid equally to how many we destroy." Jack says to them as he drinks his coke while sitting on the floor.

"They don't think we can destroy them?" Colt, the tall, muscular giant asks.  
"Looks like it, the basic payment is roughly about 40000 Credits."

"Any Ravens affiliated to them? How's the Geography?" Theron, the green haired teen asks impatiently.  
"So far we know that Ranker 21, Horseshoe and Ranker 87 Brass King is affiliated. The mission will take place at the new Regal Industrial Area, near the ocean. There's a bit of high ground but your sniper rifle may not be useful in this fight Prowler." Jack answers, looking at Theron with stern eyes.

"The heavy threats would be the 91L2 and 08M units, the plasma cannons and the heavy missiles would be troublesome for Crimson." Jack looks at Caden, the teen with green eyes and messy long brown hair.  
"Though for Atlas, this is a good time for all those missiles to kick in. So anyway, get prepped. Mission starts at 1700 hours. School ends at 3. Read up you stuff while you wait at the hangar. See you later." Jack says as he walks away.

"Let's go. We got an hour of class left." Gerald turns to Hamilton who taps him on the back. Leon takes out his cigarette and smokes, Colt and Theron chill with Leon while Walter walks away.

Gerald and Hamilton walk back to class, only to find a crowd gathering.  
"This is Ridgewood. A place where those with influence will always triumph those who are weak." Gerald whispers to Hamilton as they walk to see their classmate, Munir, a Malay teen being hit by three Chinese male students. Munir is cowering on the floor as the three students kept kicking him repeatedly. Gerald clenches his fists as he watches Munir being stepped on.  
"Fuck this." Gerald says to himself and pushes the three guys aside, they fall and look at Gerald. Gerald turns to Munir, he gets down to help Munir on his feet.  
"Out of the way, gwailo!(foreigner)" one of them says as he walks closer.  
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Hamilton says as he steps in stopping the guy's fist from hitting Gerald.

"This is too much, Shane." Hamilton says to the Chinese boy with a mohawk hair.

"You okay?" Munir nods to Gerald's question.  
"Just be lucky the Gwailo protected you!" Shane shouts and walks away.  
"Geez, class interrupted by these assholes. Pisses me off."

"Whatever." Gerald bursts with anger as he helps Munir to his seat.

"Sorry."

"No it's okay Munir. They're just assholes by nature." Hamilton speaks bluntly.

"Well, it's already 2:50. I'm gonna go pack up." Gerald says as he gets his bag and books, Hamilton joins him and gets his bag, they both walk out from the class and to the student parking, Hamilton gets his motorcycle helmet and passes one to Gerald.  
"Let's go." Gerald gets on Hamilton's Harley Davidson Night Rod.

Half an hour later, they reach the warehouse. Finding Jack and the others to be inside, preparing for the oncoming was tuning up his AC, Cascade. Equiped with Crest SR2 head, Crest U3 core,CR XS arms, CR 80S2 legs. The unit was armed with two Pythons and LB3 laser blades in its hangar, with its back weapon being CR LGL linear gun and a Skylla plasma cannon. Gray coloured AC.

"That's a lot of weapons Jack!" Hamilton shouts. Jack steps outside of the cockpit and looks at Hamilton.  
"Of course, someone has to play the artillery aside from Titan." Jack says as he leans on Cascade's and Gerald walk to their ACs, Hamilton's Black AC, Lucky Strike is equipped with Sting head, CR U4 core, CR XS arms and LH80S2 legs equipped with the powerful laser rifle Karasawa, LB3 laser blade, Geryon 3 laser cannon and vertical mortars. Lucky Strike is an AC built for destructive power and long range mortar support, Gerald remembers the times when the Geryon 3 laser cannon and Karasawa shots saved him when Blissful Soul was damaged.

Gerald looks at the AC beside Lucky Strike. Blissful Soul. Eye2 head, C98E2 exceed orbit core, A92XS arms, LH84L2 legs, Karasawa on the right arm, LB3 on the left and Pegasus on the back. Blissful Soul is the lightweight AC with high speed mobility despite being overweight, something only achievable by those who have been experimented with Human PLUS, Blissful Soul's weapons and mobility makes it suited for high speed combat and fast assault.  
Gerald gets in the cockpit of Blissful Soul, he starts the necessary tune ups on the cockpit systems. He looks at the edges of his cockpit, finding a photo of him and a group of other kids. Gerald lets out a sigh as he remembers that time when he was a kid along with the other guys.

The Mercenary Unit that Gerald is in, the Roses Of Demise (R.O.D) is made up of 8 members including him, that have went through a cruel project known as Human PLUS. The project that forced itself towards people with debt, not just Ravens. The project was made to create humans whose combat potential were higher than others but the project backfired when the 8 of them underwent a breakdown and eliminated everything. There were at least 300 of them, but now. It's just down to 8 of them, 8 perfectly crafted Human PLUS initiates who turns a simple AC into a deadly machine.

Gerald turns to Sorrow, the charcoal gray AC owned by Leon that uses a Sting head, U4 core, CRS2 arms, CRLH89F legs, equipped with laser blade, machine gun,a railgun on the back with micro missiles. Multipurpose AC designed for long range support with railgun and missiles, while also allowing it to have one on one AC battles with the high capacity machine gun and laser blade.

Then, he looks at Walter's AC, Saving Grace a black coloured main body with white trimmings with candy finish. Sporting the Eye 4 head, U3 core, Lemur 2 arms, Dingo2 legs, uses a rifle, laser blade and the Chimera laser cannons. Saving Grace is an AC designed to face heavy ACs while maintaining decent mobility. The rifle can be used to chip away Armor Points (AP) while the Chimera Laser cannons are used for heavy attacks.

A bloodily red AC with slash patterned paint moves in front of him, Red Blade, Caden's AC. CRSR2 head, U2 core with OB function, CR XS arms, CRLH89F legs, Moonlight laser blade on left arm and right arm laser blade, dual railguns for long range. Red Blade is a unit designed for close range combat with the laser blades on both arms and the rail guns on the back for long range engagements with snipers.

"This is Caden, I'm moving to the drop ship first." Caden says as he moves Red Blade to the drop ship. Gerald turns to find two ACs following suit. Theron's green AC with digital camouflage patterns, sporting the Queen head, Gaea core, Lemur 2 arms, Cougar 2. Sniper rifle, machine gun and Ladon 2s. Theron's role in the team is to act as the sniper, picking targets off a distance was his style, what sets him apart from other Ravens is his precision with the sniper rifle and the Ladon 2s. His units Queen head has been reconfigured to allow Theron to have enhanced zooming with any type of weapon available. Theron can manage himself in one on one combat with ACs, but he is not the best in them. Which is why he called his AC the Hunter.

Lastly, he looks at Colt's desert painted heavy weight AC, Titan. Beetle head, Selena Core, 89AG arms, LH77A legs, uses two heavy bazookas, has two revolvers in hangar units and large multi spread missiles, inside missiles and missile extensions. Colt's Ac, Titan acts as the main powerhouse in the firepower part, with missiles to take out multiple enemy units or to cripple multiple ACs, Titan has it all.

Gerald soon starts up Blissful Soul, preparing to move to the drop ship with Cascade, Lucky Strike and Saving Grace. The four of them board it, and remain in their cockpits for the 30 minute flight.

"This is Serene Wills, taking the role of operator, R.O.D unit, please confirm your presence in the roster."

"Alright this is Jack Reynolds alias Black Jack, call sign Rose 1. Thank you for reminding us Miss Serene." Jack responds.  
"This is Gerald Winds alias Fracture call sign Rose 2."  
"Leon Wilson, Blaze. Rose 3"  
"Hi, Hamilton Reeves, Rabbit call sign Rose 4!" Hamilton says cheekily.

"Walter Grace, Maestro. Rose 5."  
"Caden Mueller, Crimson, Rose 6 standing by."  
"Theron Williams, Prowler,Rose 7. Ready."

"Colt Splicer, Atlas. Rose 8 standing by."

"Okay roster check complete, all Roses are accounted for. Here's the operation summary. Client is the Malaysian Government, objective is the elimination of terrorist forces occupying the Regal Industrial Area near the Straits of Melaka. Advanced payment is 40000 Credits, you will be reimbursed for the amount of enemies you destroy. It is unknown if the ACs affiliated to the terrorist force League of New Reason will be there, if present you have the liberty of choosing if you want to engage them or not. I'll leave that up to you. Operation briefing complete. Black Jack, please take over for tactical briefing." the sweet, calm and feminine voice speaks to them.

"Roger that, thank you. This is Black Jack, I'll be giving the tactical briefing. Right now, we just have to face the 12 big laser cannon units I warned you about, one shot from those could cripple your AC haphazardly and effect your performance. Prowler and Crimson are the ones who will be seriously effected due to their combat preference being hindered, Prowler will still play as long range support but his effectiveness will be limited due to the Geographical nature of the area. The quad mortar units are not much trouble as speed will prevail over them, the rest are just small fry. To counter this, Fracture will get the attention of the 12 units, while the rest of us try to whittle them down. Once they've been dealt with Crimson will be going in head first into the enemy formation, this will cause confusion within the ranks. Any questions so far? We're halfway through the tac brief."

"No. Not yet. Please continue. Black Jack" Theron answered.

"Okay. When Crimson goes in first, Atlas will be from behind, launching his missiles and firing the heavy artillery. From then on, it's our show gentlemen. So let's get this done. Get paid and go home to drink beers or something. Tactical briefing over. Everyone clear on the plan?"

"Clear as day Black Jack." Hamilton says.  
"60 seconds till arrival." the drop ship pilot says.

"Alright 60 seconds till drop. Get ready team." Black Jack says to them. Gerald takes the moment to breathe in and holds his control sticks calmly, looking at the photo of his class Year 9 Magnolia.

"Arrived at the mission area. Commencing AC drop! Good luck and happy hunting R.O.D!" the pilot says to them. The gate opens.  
"Copy that. Thanks for the help Fox!" the four ACs fly out of the dropship.  
"Execute the plan!" Jack orders  
"Roger" the other Roses respond to Jack's words, Gerald proceeds to fly closer to the enemy laser cannon MTs, firing a few shots to get their attention.  
"ENEMY AC! ALL UNITS FIRE AT WILL!" Gerald controls Blissful Soul quickly, the laser cannon MTs fire towards him, the grenade launchers and missiles fire at him. Gerald activates his Exceed Orbit unit to help destroy incoming missiles, he keeps moving as fast he can.  
"Fracture, get clear of that area." Gerald looks at the radar, seeing the spot designated by Jack, he moves Blissful Soul aside, watching Cascade firing the railguns. The two powerful shots blow through two dozen MTs.  
"Crimson, move in! Strike the Laser cannon MTs while they're confused!"  
"Roger that!" Blissful Soul moves down with Red Blade. Red Blade immediately starts using his laser blades, cutting through 3 laser cannon MTs. Blissful Soul fires the Karasawa shots up close and uses the laser blade to cut through some of the enemy MTs.

"Prowler engaging the enemy MTs." Hunter's long range sniper shots immediately dispose of 10 MTs.  
"Reloading." Sorrow flies in, immediately firing his machine gun as he boosts pass them, causing them to shift their focus to him.

"Atlas, engaging!" Titan flies in, activating his extensions, his insides and his large missiles. Gerald could hear the rapid locks from Titan's missile launchers, the large swarm of missiles fly above, raining down on the remaining MTs, destroying them easily.  
"Maestro. Firing Chimeras." Saving Grace fires its four barrelled laser cannon, destroying the few MT units while Crimson slashes the rest of them down.

"Confirming destruction of all enemy MTs, good work. Wait. 2 ACs inbound, confirming. It's Ranker 21 Horseshoe and Ranker 87 Brass King. It's up to you if you want to engage." Serene says to them. The hover AC flies close with the heavyweight bipedal. The Roses are standing at the center of the port.

"Roger.. So how about it? Who wants to engage these guys?" Jack asks.  
"I'm not up for it. Kinda lazy." Colt says with an annoyed tone, Titan flies to the side.  
"Sorrow? Saving Grace? Red Blade?"

"I'll pass. Don't feel like we should engage them." Sorrow flies to the side, flying next to Titan.  
"What a damn mess... 8 Ravens?" they hear the Brass King speak to them.

"Fracture?"  
"I'll engage them. If I have to."

"Please leave, I think that would be easier for us both." Gerald says to them.

"We're mercenaries after all."  
"You have some nerve to say that."

"Brass.. Let's pull back."  
"What d'ya mean pull back? I ain't leaving till we collect their bounty!"

"That's rank 7. Fracture. I doubt we will survive in a fight against them, let alone him!"

"Good point. Well, we'll get your bounties another day then!" Horseshoe and Brass King turn around, flying away from the operation zone.

"Well, rank 7 out of the many Ravens in the Raven's Ark. You have to admit Fracture, who in the world would want to face a rank 7 Raven even on a 2 on 1 battle?"  
"Even alone, Fracture could take out these MTs. But hey, we all need a bit of exercise every now and then right?" Jack says out loud. They all head back.

An hour later, they arrived at their base with the ACs being repaired. Gerald sees the other Roses sitting by the corner, enjoying themselves to the bar.

"Hey Gerald! Come on and join us!"

"I'll pass." Gerald walks out the door with his sling bag.

"That's Gerald for ya." Jack sighs as he drinks up.  
"The girls in my class go crazy about him. They talk about how he's got the charming good looks, the mysterious personality.

"Going out Gerald?" he turns to see a black haired woman wearing a black suit and skirt with glasses looking at him.

"Miss Serene." Gerald says to her as he bows to her.  
"Where are you going?" Serene asks.

"Somewhere, but I'll be back." Gerald takes the keys to his motorcycle, a gray Ducati Panigale R. He revs the bike and rides on to the streets, enjoying the calm night breeze blowing on him,

As he rides on Gerald could feel that the Panigale is like a part of himself, Human PLUS abilities allow the said people to amplify their ACs abilities, they will always have a radar no matter what type of head part is used or radar is available or not, doubled generator capacity which allows them to fight for long periods of time, removing the need to kneel when using back weapons like chain guns, railguns, pulse cannons and so on.

That's what he originally thought but now Gerald has come to a conclusion that every piece of technology around will also be amplified by the Human PLUS abilities considering that the Panigale moves faster than it should be and how he could actually read texts without looking at his phone. His motorcycle helmet has become an interface, allowing him to use his voice to access the things he would be able to access with his phone.

"Text received. Read text?"  
"Read it."

"Hey, Gerald. It's Catherine, are you free this tomorrow? I'm having a birthday hangout with my friends, and I want to invite you to join me too. One Utama.. Text me soon! "

Gerald sighs as he thinks about Catherine. The tall girl of his grade, whose height was just 5 centimeters shorter than he is. Gerald stands at 180 centimeters, the shortest among the Roses. Jack is the tallest, standing at 210 stops his bike at a park, looking at a photo of Catherine on her contact photo. Catherine was a the girl with short black hair in a boyish cut with blue eyes, she was looking into the camera in the photo with a blank expression.  
It's 8:50 PM, Gerald parks his bike by the park, he takes his phone and sends Catherine a text.

"Hey. I'll be there, what time do you want to meet?" Gerald texts as he leans on his Panigale.

"10 AM. Hope to see you there :)" Gerald gets on his bike and rides back to the base. Finding the rest of the Roses asleep on the couch, the floor and bottles on the table. Gerald smiles as he takes some blankets and puts it on them, leaving them to sleep comfortably. Gerald walks to Blissful Soul, he take the stairs up, walking close to Blissful Soul's core, Gerald climbs up, and sits down, leaning his head on the cold metal of the Eye2 head.  
"Blissful Soul. Thank you, for taking care of me all this time. Good night." Gerald says as he sleeps.


End file.
